India’s newly-appointed head coach Rahul Dravid reached Jaipur on Friday ahead of the India-New Zealand series which is starting from November 17. Dravid reached Jaipur without the other members of the coaching staff as they are yet to be named officially by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). However, according to reports, BCCI will name the other coaching staff today (November 13) and they will join the former National Cricket Academy (NCA) head in Jaipur today itself.
Suryakumar Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Venkatesh Iyer and Mohammed Siraj have also reached Jaipur on November 12 while the rest will join them today. The players will be in quarantine for three days and will start the practice sessions on November 15.
“Players in the World Cup need a break and will join the squad on November 13. They have been in bio-bubbles for a long. They will have to be in a three-day quarantine before entering the Team India bio-bubble. Rahul and other coaching staff are expected to arrive by tomorrow,” a senior BCCI official told InsideSport.
On the other hand, New Zealand players will fly to Jaipur from Dubai after the T20 World Cup final against Australia on November 14. The BlackCaps are expected to reach the venue on November 15.
India will play three-match T20I series followed by two-match Test series against the Kiwis. Senior players like Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja have been rested for the T20I series. However, Jadeja will be back for the Test series where Kohli will be back for second Test. Also, the newly-appointed T20I captain Rohit Sharma has given rest for the red-ball format.
India’s T20I squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohahmmed Siraj